Ilaria Venturini Fendi

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Ilaria Venturini Fendi will speak about the experiences of Carmina Campus, the accessory brand created entirely with recycled materials, on June 17th at the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum. Hosted by the United Nations Global Compact, the conference will take place before Rio+20, the assembly of the United Nations that has set as its goal to reach a global agreement on the strategies to put in use for a sustainable future.

Venturini’s speech, who was called by Simone Cipriani, head of the Ethical Fashion Initiative of the ITC (International Trade Center, an agency of the United Nations and of the World Trade Organization) will take place during the third Global Forum for Responsible Management Education, aimed at promoting innovative partnerships between public and private corporations, besides proving responsible business models.

Daughter of Anna Fendi, Silvia’s sister, after working as a designer for the family’s company, Ilaria Venturini Fendi sold her share and opened an organic agriculture company in the Province of Rome, at I Casali del Pino. "I never thought of going back into fashion. And I didn't chose Africa, Africa chose me. I went there with some experts to learn how to make honey, and I ended up with a hat that I recycled into a handbag. I don’t have the claim of imposing a model: when I say that I believe in sustainable creativity what I mean is that I believe in small concrete answers." Carmina Campus offers themed accessories collections that reflect on pollution, waste, garbage, with tags such as “Don’t fly private, fly commercial”. "It’s about shaking up a field (that is, after all, intrinsically innovative) like fashion; so much that sustainability is an obligatory path, there are no other solutions.

For Carmina Campus we import from Africa semi-finished products, created largely from the work of small businesswomen, but the production is made in Italy. It’s not easy to find waste material in Africa: we send there the waste of our worlds and they re-use everything. I’ve already sent artisans that collaborate with me to train people locally, but I would like for my workshop in Rome to become the center of development of the product and where to educate African experts."

L'Uomo Vogue, May-June 2012 (n. 431)

Ilaria Venturini Fendi with some of her creations

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